The Debut Prize Presents: Rising Russian Poets with Key US Poets for a Reading and Conversation with David Lehman October 15, 2012

Carrying forward Russia’s rich poetic tradition, acclaimed rising poets read from their work, discuss the variety and richness of contemporary Russian verse, and consider their art and its role in the context of Russia's volatile political and social reality. Reading alongside them will be key US poets (names tba) whose work, in breadth of vision and acclaim, both relates to and differs from that of the Russian poets in interesting ways. To be moderated by David Lehman, one of the foremost editors, literary critics, poets, and anthologists of contemporary American literature.

Dina Gatina was born in 1981 in the town of Engels in the Russian provinces. She completed her degree at the Saratov Arts School and then graduated from the Moscow Institute of Contemporary Art. She lives in St, Petersburg and works as an artist, illustrator and poet. In 2001 she was shortlisted for the Debut Prize with her poetry and in 2002 she won the prize in the “short prose” category.

Alla Gorbunova was born in 1985 on Vasilievsky Island in St. Petersburg; she graduated from the Philosophy Department of St. Petersburg University in 2008, majoring in social philosophy and the philosophy of history. Gorbunova now works as a translator, reviewer, and journalist, and teaches philosophy at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic University. She won the Debut Prize for her poetry in 2005, and has since published two collections of poetry, the latest of which was short-listed in 2011 for the Andrei Belyi Prize.


Lev Oborin is a highly influential young poet and critic. Born in 1987 in Moscow, he graduated from the Russian State University for the Humanities with a degree in philology. He is currently a graduate student there, studying Russian-British cultural ties. He is one of the creators of a web site dedicated to experimental poetry and a guitarist in an indie rock band.

David Lehman will moderate the evening. One of the foremost editors, literary critics, and anthologists of contemporary American literature, David Lehman is also one of its most accomplished poets. Born in New York City in 1948, Lehman earned a PhD from Columbia University and attended the University of Cambridge as a Kellett Fellow. He is the author of numerous collections of poetry and creator of The Best American Poetry series in 1988 and the editor of The Oxford Book of American Poetry. Lehman’s numerous honors and awards include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Ingram Merrill Foundation, and awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Writer’s Award. On faculty at both the New School and New York University, he lives in New York City.

This event is brought to you by CAUSA ARTIUM, a NYC-based arts non-profit, in cooperation with the Debut Prize Foundation.
For over a decade, the Debut Prize has sought out young Russian-speaking literary talent the world over. Receiving as many as 70,000 submissions annually, Debut is a vast competition, one of Russia's elite literary honors and a landmark in the literary calendar, the brainchild of Andrei Skoch, a noted philanthropist, businessman and member of the Russian parliament.

For more information, see: www.CausaArtium.org and www.DebutPrize.com.

For press information, contact: Bruce Mason, (917) 541-9014, bruce.a.mason@gmail.com

Official Website: http://www.debutprize.com/ai1ec_event/rising-russian-poets-in-concert-with-key-us-poets-for-a-reading-and-conversation-with-david-lehman/?instance_id=199